Heaven Sent (11 page)

“Da—vid,” she moaned, his name coming out in a long, lingering sigh of complete satisfaction.

“
Mi vida, mi alma
,” he groaned, answering her. And that she was. She had become his life because she had helped give him back his life. And now that he’d kissed her she had become a part of his soul. A soul he did not and could not afford to lose.

Tightening his grip on her slender body, David reversed their positions, devouring her mouth. He pulled back, giving both a chance to catch their breaths before taking her mouth again in a kiss that made her surrender to his unyielding, relentless assault as her tongue met his.

Serena welcomed his weight, throwing her head back and baring her throat. He rained passionate kisses along the column of her neck, moving down to her breasts. One hand searched under the bodice of her dress and closed over a full, firm breast.

Seconds later, his mouth replaced his hand at the same time she arched off the mattress. His teeth closed gently around a turgid nipple. A low, keening sound escaped from her open mouth. Not recognizing the sound as her own, she froze as a rush of moisture bathed the secret place between her legs. Her eyes widened in shock. No! She couldn’t! Not with a stranger!

“No, David!” She tried rising, but couldn’t because of his greater weight bearing down on her. “Let me go.”

Through the thick haze of desire making him a
prisoner of his own passions, David heard her desperate cry. Raising his head, he stared down at the fear shimmering with the tears in her large, rounded eyes. What had he done to frighten her? All he did was kiss her.

Cradling her face between his palms, he pressed a kiss on the tip of her nose, then released her and rolled off her body. She slapped his hand away when he attempted to adjust the bodice of her dress.

He stared at her lowered head as she smoothed out the wrinkled fabric after she’d pulled the narrow straps up over her shoulders. “Don’t expect me to apologize for kissing you.” Her head snapped up at the same time her jaw dropped. “I kissed you because I wanted to,” he explained softly. Her expression shifted from one of shock to anger. “If you hadn’t wanted it, then you should’ve said so, and not kissed me back.”

Serena scrambled off the bed and glared at him, her hands folded on her hips. “You arrogant son of a—”

“You liked it, Serena,” he snapped, cutting off her angry tirade. “Otherwise you wouldn’t have had your tongue down my throat.”

She went completely still as her mind replayed his accusation.
You liked it
. And she
had
liked it. No, she loved it. The feel of David’s hands and mouth had taken her beyond herself. And for the few minutes she lay in his arms she’d forgotten every other man who had ever touched her, wondering what it would be like for him to possess her totally.

Tilting her delicate chin, she stared down her nose at him. “You’re right, David Claridge Cole, I liked it. I liked you kissing and touching me.” It was her turn to watch his expression change from cockiness to bewilderment, and she decided to challenge his arrogance.
“And I’m willing to bet that you want more than a kiss or a feel.” Hooking her thumbs under the straps of her dress, she took a step closer to the bed. “You want all of me, David?” she crooned. “Do you feel up to burning up the sheets? Do you think you can handle me?”

He watched, mouth gaping, as Serena slipped the straps of her dress off her shoulders and gathered the skirt and pulled it above her knees, baring her slim, muscled thighs. Her lids lowered over her eyes, not permitting him to see their clear gold depths.

“Do you mind me being on top?” she questioned, her voice dropping to a lower register where it sounded like a muted horn in a thick fog. “I like submission in
my men
when I make love.”

The blood rushed to David’s head, tightening the vise of pain around his temples. He wanted the blood in another part of his body so that he could take the seductive witch up on her challenge, but it was not to be. The heat and pain stabbed him behind his left eye, nearly blinding him.

“I can’t,” he admitted. He shook his head, then chided himself for doing so as the pain intensified. Easing down on the bed, he lay back and placed a muscled forearm over his forehead. “Please go.”

Serena pressed her attack. “I’ll go, but I want you to remember something, Sport. Don’t ever tell me what I want or like. I’m quite capable of verbalizing my wants and my dislikes. If I want you to kiss me or decide I want you in my bed I’ll come out and tell you. Do I make myself clear, or do you need the Spanish translation?”

“
Lo siento mucho
,” David apologized, breathing heavily and wishing she would leave him alone.

“So am I,” she countered, turning and walking out of the room. And she
was
sorry, sorry that she had
permitted him to kiss her, sorry that she enjoyed it so much, and sorry that it reminded her of how sterile her life had become.

S
erena spent the afternoon berating herself for her wanton exhibition in David’s bedroom. For a brief, crazed moment she had become a
puta
, displaying her wares and offering herself to a man for his sexual pleasure. What had saved her was that he had not been able to follow through with the blatant seduction.

Walking slowly through the greenhouse, she barely noticed the many plants and trees as she recalled David’s gasp when she’d bared her thighs. A smile softened and curved her lush mouth when she remembered telling him that she liked being on top. Just for that brief instant she feared that he would faint. It was only after he lay down that she realized that he was in pain.

But something also nagged at her, telling her that David Cole was not a man who would permit a woman to openly challenge him. If he was anything like her
father, she knew he would exact punishment at another time, and by his own methods.

Shrugging a slender shoulder, she continued her tour of the enormous, enclosed, glass structure. She and David had not shared lunch because she told Luz Maria to have one of the women assigned to
La Montaña’s
housekeeping staff bring him his lunch. Deciding to forego her own meal, she telephoned Leandro and suggested that he come by after office hours to check on his patient. She wanted him to discharge David so that he could conclude his business matters with her father, then leave Costa Rica. Having him live at
La Montaña
had become too encompassing and distracting.

She stopped at a tree whose bark was covered with a profusion of rare orchids so dark that they appeared black instead of an inky purple. These orchids were only one of Raul Cordero-Vega’s many prized hybrids. Raul, a highly educated botanist, had said on occasion that he missed teaching and lecturing. However, he preferred to work for the government, wherein he was responsible for protecting Costa Rica’s natural environment for the generations to come after him.

In a corner of the greenhouse was a plot with Luz Maria’s herbs. None of them were labeled like her father’s, so Serena had no idea what the plants were nor their purposes.

Luz Maria had promised that when she had children she would teach her what commonly grown plants she could use to cure or heal boils, fevers, to counteract the discomfort associated with headaches, menstrual and teething pain, and insect bites, and to slow down the poisonous effects from venomous reptiles or spiders.

Walking the perimeter of the greenhouse, Serena decided it was time for Luz Maria to fulfill her promise
now. She had planned to spend three months in Costa Rica, while waiting for an assurance that her brother could be released on bail. She would use the time to her advantage.

She left the greenhouse and spent the remainder of
siesta
in the aviary. Most of the exotic birds were housed in enormous cages, some from floor-to-ceiling, but others were left to fly about with reckless freedom. A brightly colored pygmy parrot lighted on her bare shoulder and pecked at the tiny, gold-hoop earring dangling from her left lobe.

Shooing him away, she watched the antics of the other birds, who had realized a stranger had invaded their habitat. Most fluttered wildly, calling out to one another. The flash of bright color was blinding, ranging from brilliant yellow and vermillion red to seductively deep blues, purple, and black.

La Montaña
, the greenhouse, and the connecting aviary represented Raul’s material wealth and pride. His wife and his children were his priceless treasures, second only to his love of his country.

David lay across the bed, staring up at the ceiling. A tiny, dark-skinned woman had brought him his lunch on a tray and he had sent her away, along with the food. His seething anger overrode his need to eat.

He had made a fool of himself, and Serena humiliated him. She had offered him her body and he hadn’t accepted what she was so willing to give him. And he wanted her more than he had wanted any woman up to that moment.

It was said that when women became sexual aggressors men usually could not perform because of the reversal of roles; he had become an example when her
brazen exhibition stunned and frightened him. He’d found himself inept.

Impotent!
How could he be at thirty-six? Sitting up and swinging his legs over the side of the bed, he reached for the cane. Making his way slowly across the bedroom, he opened the French doors and limped out to the veranda. The tropical heat was brutal, sucking the breath from his lungs and making breathing a labored exercise. Squinting against the rays of the brilliant sun, he stared out at the stretch of ocean in the distance. His gaze swung around to the tops of the dense trees shading the cool, dark undergrowth of the jungle. Despite the heat he shivered slightly when he thought of what prowled along the jungle floor. Closing his eyes, he imagined the teeming life inhabiting the rain forest. The cries of the birds, the growls of the jaguars, and the screeches of the monkeys became music, notes strung together to form an exotic rhythmic composition.

For the first time in nine years he heard music in his head. Notes, harmonies, and melodies he wanted to capture before they floated into nothingness. A smile filtered across his face as he opened his eyes. He needed paper. He wanted to write down the hauntingly beautiful sounds reverberating in his mind.

Turning, he limped from the veranda, closed the French doors to keep out the heat, then walked out of his bedroom to Serena’s. Her door was slightly ajar, and he heard a man’s voice. Listening intently, he realized she had the radio on. He knocked on the door and waited. He knocked again, then pushed it open.

His earlier anxiety quickly vanished. He knew he was not impotent when his body reacted quickly to the sight of Serena coming out of the adjoining bath wearing only a pair of tiny, white-lace, bikini panties.

Serena saw him at the same time he stepped into her bedroom. Startled, she stood still, hands frozen at her sides. Her eyes widened as she watched David staring at her half-naked body. His chest rose and fell heavily in unison with her own trembling breasts.

Somewhere, somehow, she found her voice. “Get out.”

Instead of leaving, he turned his back, shutting out the vision of her flawless body. He could still see her perfectly formed, full breasts resting high above her narrow rib cage. The legs he had only glimpsed before were exhibited with slim thighs flowing into strong calves and slender ankles.

“I knocked but didn’t get an answer, so I walked in,” he said, apologizing.

Serena stared at his broad back as she inched over to a chair and picked up a sleeveless smock dress. He had elected to wear one of the T-shirts she had bought for him.

“What do you want?” she asked, slipping her arms through the sleeves.

“I need paper. Preferably unlined.”

“What for?”

“I want to write down some music.”

After buttoning the many buttons lining the front of the dress, she walked over to David and stood in front of him. She wanted to scream at him for making her aware of how much she needed him, and for being so damned attractive.

“Before I give you the paper I think we should talk.”

Sighing heavily, he nodded. “You’re right.”

Her gaze moved from his face down to his right hand, which held the cane in a punishing grip. It was apparent
that he had shifted most of his weight from his injured foot.

Taking his left hand she led him slowly over to an alcove in the room, where she had set up a sitting area. “Come and sit down.”

David eased himself down to a cushioned bamboo rocker, permitting the cane to slide to the sisal area rug covering the terra-cotta floor. The furnishings in the alcove were delightfully attractive. The orange, black, and yellow print on the cushions and matching tablecloth on a small round table and the carved ebony masks and pieces of sculpture on a bamboo bookcase mirrored the blending of African and Caribbean cultures of Puerto Limón.

Serena claimed a chair facing David. She studied his dark eyes watching her every move as she smoothed out the flowing fabric of her dress. Glancing away, she stared out through the French doors.

“I’d like to apologize for my wanton behavior earlier this afternoon,” she began. Her gaze swung back to his. “But I won’t retract what I said about letting you know what I like or dislike.”

David lowered his head, successfully concealing an emerging smile. The forefinger of his left hand traced the rapidly healing scar over his left cheek. “Did you enjoy kissing me as much as I enjoyed kissing you?” His head came up and she was rewarded with the full force of his dimpled smile.

Her lips twitched as she tried holding back her own smile. “You don’t quit, do you, David Cole? Are you ever humble?”

Pursing his mouth as if in deep thought, he shook his head. “Nope.”

This response made her laugh, and to her surprise so
did David. When she recovered she realized it was the first time she had laughed in weeks.

Pressing his head against the back of the chair, David flashed a sexy, lopsided grin. His bruised eye and scarred cheek made him appear less pretty. The scar marred his face just enough to give him a rugged look.

“How does it look?”

“What?” she questioned, not knowing what he was referring to.

“The scar?”

“I find it kind of sexy.”

He arched a sweeping eyebrow. “Sexy? I don’t think so.”

“All you need is an earring in your ear and you can masquerade as a pirate for Halloween.”

He leaned forward. “Give me one of your earrings, and we’ll see.”

Her hand went to her right ear. “They’re pierced.”

“So is my left ear.”

She stared, wordless. She had shaved and bathed him, and not once had she noticed that his ear was pierced. She removed the earring from her right ear and walked over to where he sat. Leaning over, she inserted the small hoop in his ear.

David closed his eyes, savoring her scent and the warmth of her body. “How does it look?” he queried when she stepped back to survey his ear.

Her smile gave him his answer. “Very sexy.”

He returned her smile. “Thank you.”

Serena took her seat, shaking her head. “Earrings and tattoos. Have they become the latest accoutrements for an international businessman?”

“You forget that I was a musician first, businessman second.”

“Which do you like better?”

“Music, of course. However, it seems as if I have a natural bent for business, while I have to work my butt off to get my music just right.”

Crossing her sandaled feet at the ankles, Serena realized she wanted to know more about the man who disturbed her in every way. “Why did you leave the band?”

“My older brother Martin resigned as CEO of ColeDiz to go into politics, and I was next in line so I took over the reins.”

“How long ago was this?”

“Nine years.”

“Then you were very young.”

“Twenty-seven. I was responsible for enterprises in at least a half dozen countries. We own vacation properties in Puerto Rico, St. Thomas, and Aruba, and coffee, sugar, and banana plantations in Belize, Mexico, and Costa Rica. I intend to divest ColeDiz of its only remaining Costa Rican venture.”

“What do you plan to do with it?”

“I’ll use the proceeds to set up another banana plantation in Belize.”

She stared, unblinking, at this disclosure. If he was going to meet with her father, then the sale was not to be a private one. “You intend to sell it to the government?”

He glanced at her from under lowered eyebrows as his expression changed. His mien grew cold, hard, making him look as if he’d been carved out of dark marble, while his blatant masculine beauty faded behind a mask of angry loathing.

A consortium of businessmen had been willing to make an offer for the property until Raul Cordero-Vega intervened. What Vega wanted was for ColeDiz to sell the plantation to the government for half the consortium’s agreed upon price. He then planned to sell the plantation to the consortium, yielding a one hundred percent profit for his government’s coffers.

“That all depends on your father.”

“Why my father?”

“I can’t discuss that with you.” David did not want to draw Serena into the undeclared war he’d been waging with her stepfather ever since he’d taken over as CEO of ColeDiz International Ltd.

Serena’s expression also changed. For the first time she saw David Cole for what he was—a businessman; one who shifted millions, perhaps billions, of dollars from a country or an account as easily as one moved a piece on a chessboard.

She nodded slowly. “I’ll respect your decision.” Rising to her feet, she said, “I’m going to the kitchen. Would you like me to bring you something?”

“Yes, please. Something to drink.”

“Don’t run away,” she teased, hoping to alleviate the tension that had sprung up between them with the mention of Raul Cordero-Vega’s name.

“I wouldn’t even if I could.”

The instant the statement was out of his mouth David knew that his feelings for Serena were deepening, intensifying. The taste of her honeyed mouth and viewing her naked body were imprinted on his brain for a lifetime. He stared at her staring back at him, and in a breath of a second both knew what the other was thinking and what the other wanted. She had accused him of being
arrogant, and he had no intention of changing her assessment of him.

“You have to know that I
want
you, Serena,” he said quietly in Spanish. “And it’s not for a quick lay,” he continued in English. “And don’t think I want you out of gratitude for saving my life.”

Serena was certain he could hear her heart pounding in her chest as it resounded loudly in her own ears. All she knew about David Cole was that he was wealthy and he had been a musician. And all she could see was that he was gorgeous and arrogantly charming. What she did not want to acknowledge was that he was the most sensual man she had ever encountered. His delicate dark looks, pierced ear, and tattooed, muscled body stimulated her imagination so much that she was certain that sharing a bed with him was certain to become a unique experience.